Siegmar-W. Breckle - Böcker

This book provides a quantitative fully reproducible delineation of ecoclimatic boundaries to ecoclimate classification. In contrast to previous classifications, the ecoclimate classification does not use the usual “climatological averages,” i.e., the average values of temperature and precipitation and not their indices, but the climatic parameters relevant to plant life (i.e., the length of thermal and hygric growing seasons) as ecophysiologically meaningful variables, as criteria for the delimitation of climate types, as an answer to many environmental questions and also to the global climate change debate. However, the ecoclimate classification model presented here has the potential to infer changes in vegetation cover from changes in climate and vice versa. It is in this context that the ecoclimate classification is a powerful tool for assessing the dimensions of habitat change for flora and fauna or, conversely, for inferring the shift of ecoclimatic boundaries from changes in vegetation cover caused by climate change.

This book is a part of the Sabkha Ecosystems series which was designed to provide information on sabkha ecosystems of different regions and to add to the collective knowledge available about saline ecosystems. The comprehensive coverage assists the reader gaining a thorough understanding of sabkha geology, hydrology, geomorphology, zoology, botany, ecology and ecosystem functioning, as well as sabkha conservation, utilization and development. Volume I focused on The Arabian Peninsula and Adjacent Countries, volume II was based on describing saline ecosystems of West and Central Asia , volume III referred to Africa and Southern Europe, while volume IV focused on Cash Crop Halophyte and Biodiversity Conservation. The present volume V focuses on Americans.

This book is a part of the Sabkha Ecosystems series which was designed to provide information on sabkha ecosystems of different regions and to add to the collective knowledge available about saline ecosystems.

Changing desert areas for land use implies a lot of ecological problems. These and related ones are dealt with in this book covering various interdisciplinary and international aspects. Large areas in arid and semi-arid regions are already polluted in various ways. One of the biggest problems is the anthropogenic salinization by inadequate means of agriculture and irrigation. Additionally, most arid areas in the world are dramatically overgrazed. Methods and practices of a sustainable land use in deserts are urgently needed in many arid regions. This book gives a broad survey on some of the affected regions of the world as well as some case studies from elsewhere (Aral Sea, Negev desert, Namib desert etc.). Thus, basic and applied sciences are brought together. Water management in deserts, grazing systems or reclamation of desertified areas are among the topics of this book, as well as social and economic aspects.

Sand dune dynamics plays a key role in many arid deserts. This volume provides a synthesis of a specific sand dune ecosystem, the Nizzana site in the Negev Desert. Describing its climate and geophysical/geochemical properties of soils, geological history, flora and fauna, and past/present land-use patterns, it elucidates ecological and geomorphological processes and their interrelations, based on long-term monitoring, in situ experiments and satellite imagery. Particular attention is drawn to the impact of the topsoil biological crust in controlling water availability at local/regional scales. The interdisciplinary approach adopted in this case study offers a good example of a highly complex and dynamic system, which could easily be applied to other sandy ecosystems.This is a valuable source of information for soil ecologists and microbiologists, conservation biologists, desert ecologists and geographers, geomorphologists, soil scientists and climatologists, lecturers, policy makers and others interested in deserts and desertification.

Sand dune dynamics plays a key role in many arid deserts. This volume provides a synthesis of a specific sand dune ecosystem, the Nizzana site in the Negev Desert. Describing its climate and geophysical/geochemical properties of soils, geological history, flora and fauna, and past/present land-use patterns, it elucidates ecological and geomorphological processes and their interrelations, based on long-term monitoring, in situ experiments and satellite imagery. Particular attention is drawn to the impact of the topsoil biological crust in controlling water availability at local/regional scales. The interdisciplinary approach adopted in this case study offers a good example of a highly complex and dynamic system, which could easily be applied to other sandy ecosystems.This is a valuable source of information for soil ecologists and microbiologists, conservation biologists, desert ecologists and geographers, geomorphologists, soil scientists and climatologists, lecturers, policy makers and others interested in deserts and desertification.

Having been the fourth largest lake on the globe roughly 50 years ago, today the Aral Sea no longer exists. Human activities caused its desiccation and the formation of a huge new desert, the Aralkum, which can be regarded as one of the greatest ecological catastrophes and - at the same time - the largest primary succession experiment of mankind. This volume brings together the results of international and interdisciplinary long-term studies on the new desert ecosystem and is divided into four main sections. The first section provides an overview of the physical characteristics of the area and covers geological, pedological, geomorphological and climatological aspects and their dynamics, especially dust-storm dynamics. The second focuses on the biotic aspects and highlights the spatial and temporal patterns of the flora and fauna. In the third section studies and projects aiming to combat desertification by phytomelioration and to develop strategies for the conservation of biodiversity are presented. The book is rounded off with a section providing a synthesis and conclusions.

Having been the fourth largest lake on the globe roughly 50 years ago, today the Aral Sea no longer exists. The first section provides an overview of the physical characteristics of the area and covers geological, pedological, geomorphological and climatological aspects and their dynamics, especially dust-storm dynamics.

Changing desert areas for land use implies a lot of ecological problems. These and related ones are dealt with in this book covering various interdisciplinary and international aspects. Large areas in arid and semi-arid regions are already polluted in various ways. One of the biggest problems is the anthropogenic salinization by inadequate means of agriculture and irrigation. Additionally, most arid areas in the world are dramatically overgrazed. Methods and practices of a sustainable land use in deserts are urgently needed in many arid regions. This book gives a broad survey on some of the affected regions of the world as well as some case studies from elsewhere (Aral Sea, Negev desert, Namib desert etc.). Thus, basic and applied sciences are brought together. Water management in deserts, grazing systems or reclamation of desertified areas are among the topics of this book, as well as social and economic aspects.

By the end of the last century, the only region in all of Europe where the natural vegetation remained untouched over large expanses was Eastern Europe. Information on the vegetation of this region however, remained mostly unavailable to western scientists although the ecological approach to botanical research originated in Eastern Europe. Heinrich Walter was born in Russia, studied Natural Sciences - with emphasis on botany - in Odessa and is familiar with all relevant Russian literature on ecology. This volume thus offers scientists worldwide a unique and comprehensive survey of all relevant research, including the mostly unknown literature published in Russian.

Des Menschen Werk auf Erden kann vergehen, Doch Leben stets im Wandel wird bestehen. Heinrich Walter The importance of ecology for the fate of mankind is receiving ever wider recognition. A syncretic-holistic approach to ecology was recently given unexpected support by the well-known atomic physicist and pupil of Heisenberg, Fritjov Capra. In his book The Turning Point, published in 1982 in the U.S.A., Capra comments critically, from the viewpoint of the latest findings of subatomic physics, on the mechanical-analytical ap- proach which still predominates in the biological sciences, and adds some philosophical reflections. The following quotations are important ecolo- gically and may be of interest to biologists in general: "It is now becoming apparent that overemphasis on the scientific method and on rational, analytic thinking has led to attitudes that are profoundly anti-ecological. In truth, the understanding of ecosystems is hindered by the very nature of the rational mind. Rational thinking is linear, whereas ecological awareness arises from an intuition of non-linear systems ...The Cartesian view of the universe as a mechanical system provided a 'scientific' sanction for the manipulation and exploitation of nature that has become typical of Western culture ...The problem is that scientists, encouraged by their success in treating living organisms as machines, tend to believe that they are nothing but machines ...Modern physics can show the other sciences that scientific thinking does not necessarily have to be reductionist and mechanistic, that holistic and ecological views are also scientifically sound ...

In Volume 1 of this four-volume series, ecological problems of a general nature were discussed from a global point of view. Familiarity with this is essential for a full understanding of the more specialized treatment in this and subsequent volumes, for no similar approach is to be found in other ecological handbooks for beginners. This present volume deals in detail with the special ecological relation­ ships of the tropical and subtropical zonobiomes I to III. Most ecologists proceed from the basis of their experience in the temperate zones of the northern hemisphere. As a result, many ecological writings show a certain one-sidedness and there is a danger that generalizations made will not be broadly applicable. To avoid this, particular emphasis is laid, in this vol­ urne, on the special ecological features and the characteristics of the trop­ ical and subtropical regions. More specifically, we deal not only with the relationship of the euclimatope to zonal soils and zonal vegetation, but also pay attention to azonal conditions shown in pedobiomes and in the altitudinal belts of mountains, the orobiomes. In this and the subsequent volumes the same simple scheme is followed in treating each zonobiome: 1. climate; 2. soils; 3. producers; 4. consum­ ers; 5. decomposers; 6. ecosystems; 7. sub division into biomes; 8. oro­ biomes; 9. pedobiomes and 10. zonoecotones. Where it has appeared expedient, however, we have occasionally deviated from this scheme (see Deserts D, F, G and H).

Vegetation, Boden und Klima sind die wichtigsten Komponenten ökologischer Systeme. Das Buch stellt eine kompakte Synthese unseres aktuellen Wissens dar über die Ökologie der Erde und ist damit die Basis für das Verständnis der großen Zusammenhänge in globaler Sicht. Das gut eingeführte Buch behandelt im ersten Teil mit einer reichen Ausstattung an Abbildungen und Fotomaterial die wesentlichen Prozesse und Vorgänge auf der Erdoberfläche, die zur Ausbildung der Vegetationsdecke mit ihrer ausgeprägten Zonierung führen. Im zweiten Teil werden die einzelnen Vegetationszonen als Großökosysteme (d.h. Zonobiome der Biosphäre) konsequent nach bestimmten Kriterien vergleichend beschrieben. In kurzer und kompakter Form wird auf die wesentlichen Kennzeichen und Strukturen sowie auf Beispiele für Ökosystemprozesse eingegangen. Die Großökosysteme sind zugleich auch Grundlage und Bezugssystem für alle anthropogenen Veränderungen, die in den letzten Jahrtausenden, vor allem aber im 20. Jhdt., die Vegetation drastisch verändert haben..

Vegetation, soil and climate are the most important components of ecological systems. The book represents a compact synthesis of our current knowledge about the ecology of the Earth and is thus the basis for understanding the major interrelationships in a global perspective. In the first part, with a rich endowment of illustrations and photographic material, the well-introduced book deals with the essential processes and operations on the Earth's surface that lead to the formation of the vegetation cover with its distinctive zonation. In the second part, the individual vegetation zones as large-scale ecosystems (i.e. zonobiomes of the biosphere) are consistently described comparatively according to certain criteria. In a short and compact form, the main characteristics and structures as well as examples of ecosystem processes are discussed. The large-scale ecosystems are at the same time the basis and reference system for all anthropogenic changes that have drastically altered thevegetation in the last millennia, but especially in the 20th century.This book is a translation of the original German 1st edition Vegetation und Klima by Siegmar-W. Breckle and M. Daud Rafiqpoor, published by Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature in 2019. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation. Springer Nature works continuously to further the development of tools for the production of books and on the related technologies to support the authors.

The large-scale ecosystems are at the same time the basis and reference system for all anthropogenic changes that have drastically altered thevegetation in the last millennia, but especially in the 20th century.This book is a translation of the original German 1st edition Vegetation und Klima by Siegmar-W.

This book is part of the Sabkha Ecosystems series. The series is designed to provide information on sabkha ecosystems of different regions. It will add to the collective knowledge available about saline ecosystems and also focuses on the African region where only limited information is currently available on.